The Children's Hospital of Michigan provides diagnostic evaluation and multimodal therapy for children throughout the state of Michigan. While there is one other pediatric oncology facility in the state (at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, 50 miles from Detroit), the oncology service at the Children's Hospital of Michigan sees almost all children with malignant disease who live in the greater Detroit metropolitan area, and also sees large numbers of children referred from ll parts of the state, regardless of ablity to pay. At the time of referral and/or admission for possible maligancy, each child is seen and evaluated by the appropriate oncology team members. Following appropriate diagnostic evaluation each child is presented and discussed at the weekly tumor board, which is attended by the pediatric oncologists, surgeons and surgical subspecialists, pathologists, radiotherapists and nurse oncologists, and a plan of action is outlined for the child's management. In the case of children with leukemia, similar discussions take place at the weekly hematology conference. By our participation in a cooperative childrens' cancer group we gain access to new multimodal therapy regimens and investigational drugs, which will hopefully provide the best available care for these children. While the Chilren's Hospital of Michigan was noted for its treatment of acute childhood leukemia in the 1950's and early 60's, it was not until 1967 that an oncology service was established to see children with solid tumors. Although remaining "independent", the solid tumor service has continually grown and now attracts a large number of referrals annually. In September of 1979 the Children's Hospital of Michigan oncology team joined the Southwest Oncology Group. It is hoped that the association with such a cooperative study group will be of mutual benefit and that more effective therapeutic regimes for children with cancer will be developed. While the members of the pediatric division of SWOG have recently decided to form a separate Adolescent and Pediatric Oncology Group, with Dr. Teresa Vietti as Chairman, the active protocols and participants will remain the same, and our institution's participation will continue.